The first two books on the list were Tom Bower's biography of Gordon Brown and Simon Sebag Montefiore's Young Stalin.

You know, if you're a member of a party that issues approved reading lists, you probably want to avoid the Stalin comparisons.

Their close proximity on the list was no coincidence. It was former Cabinet Secretary Sir Andrew Turnbull who first accused Gordon Brown of "Stalinist ruthlessness" and a "cynical view of mankind and his colleagues".

Since when have conservatives complained of people having a cynical view of humanity ? Ditto, when did a load of twittering Metropolitan wheenies all adopting the same stupid talking point become an argument in its favour ?

The whole thing is like that. Consider the chutzpah of a member of the Cult of Dave charging that Brown will 'stop at nothing to gain a short-term party political advantage'. And that's without suggesting in the self-same article that the Tories fortunes can be turned round by Andy Coulson. Who ? Cameron's new director of communications, of course. See, it's all about the deep, philosophical underpinnings.